OpenOffice Gripes (or Free isn't always best)

[nyankoframe]

If this suite's a success, why is it so buggy?

The myth of open source rests on two improbable assumptions. The first is that a significant proportion of users can fix bugs. That is true at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the concept of free software was first formalised in the 1980s by Richard Stallman and others, and it is true in some of the geekier corners of the internet. But on programs intended for use by the non-programming public, it's a very different story.

This is important because of the second crucial false assumption: that even if not all users can fix a bug, they can help find them. They can't. Most users just think: "The computer isn't doing what I want."

The problem(s) with OpenOffice

But that doesn't mean open source is somehow infallible. Sometimes the comments here read like a devout Catholic thinking I've started a smear campaign against the immaculate conception. Keep in mind that it's just software and that it can always get better. Things get better as we find their bugs and improve them.

Having actually used OpenOffice (more specifically, 2.0.3) in a certain green uniformed office environment, I agree with the both articles. OO (in short) is particularly buggy and crashed a lot (much more than 1.x), and a lot of things that should work either don't, or work in a completely different way from other programs that people are used to. I think it also didn't help that it was imposed by fiat and training was provided after the fact for a limited group of people.

Yes, people are lazy and may not want to re-learn things, but since OO decided to "challenge" Microsoft Office in this aspect, it has no excuse for not trying to at least support the standard key combinations or provide useful feedback/help. Which was another gripe I had, since the programs were installed but not the help files. That's very useful. :P

Oh well. That time is now over. :P But I still can't recommend OpenOffice to anyone unless they really have very basic needs. I think even my mother's book would have had problems with it.

Comments

[testing4l.livejournal.com]

I've never had a bad experience with OO, but then again, I've hardly used 2.x.

Also, also, I stay as far away from "fancy" docs as I can.

Say -- doesn't this article represent a conflict of interest? ; )

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to work on Office, if that's what you're worried about. :P

Even in some cases with "simple" documents, like those with multiple headers/footers, we couldn't figure out how to get it to work.

[testing4l.livejournal.com]

Oh, i was just teasing. Jeremy Clarkson -- when he was under consideration for one of the Ford GTs started making a big deal about how every Ford was great. His co-presenters would set him straight occasionally with quotes of him ragging on Fords.

This reminded me of that 8)

[greebosgirlypal.livejournal.com]

I use to use OO, and It crashed every time i tried to imort an image, and then after a few weeks it stopped working alltogether. I dislike it.

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

What version was it that you were trying to use? Maybe submitting the crash reports might help somewhat, especially if the bug hasn't been fixed yet...